IMATS started out as a show for makeup artists to stock up
on supplies, but in the past few years it has changed into a shopping event for
the general public. Be prepared for lots
of crowds, walking and spending!

·Buy tickets early, the show was sold out and
tickets were not being sold at the door!

·Wear comfortable shoes, you could be walking
upwards of 7 hours in a day.

·Set a budget.
Trust me – you will want to spend, spend, spend! Without a realistic budget, you could very
easily end up with a case of buyer’s remorse.

·Be prepared to wait in line. The line to get in to IMATS as doors opened
on Saturday morning was over four blocks long and about an hour. If you are just going to check things out and
do not have a specific list, you can arrive a little later and avoid most of
the lines.

·There are also lines for specific booths. Sugarpill, Lime Crime, Stila, Makeup Geek and
MAC seemed to have the most consistent lines, sometimes very long. We found that around 3:30, however, that a
lot of the crowd will clear out and you can walk right up to these booths. Very few of them had sold out of any items at
that time on IMATS Day 1, and it was much less stressful. It also gave us more of an opportunity to
talk with the vendors, which was really fun!

·Wear black if you want to fit in with the crowd J

·Bring a camera, or make sure you have storage
& charge on your phone. There are
stunning make-up and special effects demonstrations going on over the 2 days,
as well as student competitions.

It was an awesome new experience.I hope that if you have the opportunity to go that you enjoy it as much as we did!